New research from the Property Investment Professionals of Australia (PIPA) has found that one third of first-time buyers are opting to invest rather than to buy a home.

The 2018 PIPA Investor Sentiment Survey found that about 36 per cent of first-time buyers had opted to invest in property and continue to rent instead of buying a home to live in over the past 12 months.

PIPA chairman Peter Koulizos said while it was the first time that specific question had been asked in the annual survey, one could presume that rentvesting as an investment strategy had been a trend for some time.

"What this insight shows us is that first-time property buyers generally have probably been more active over recent years than official statistics originally recorded," he said.

The ratings agency tips NSW and Victoria to top the list, as the states that have had the biggest price drops proportionately.

Loans being converted from interest-only to principal and interest will also force delinquencies. The push to principal and interest payments in 2018 was in part due to the banking regulator's cap on interest-only lending, which has lifted for lenders from this month.

Australia's housing downturn picked up speed in 2018 with national home values declining by the largest annual amount in a decade, new figures show – but home owners and investors don't need to panic.

National dwelling values (an aggregate of house and unit values) fell 4.8 per cent through 2018, the largest annual decline since 2008, the latest figures from property data firm CoreLogic show.

The year saw price declines accelerate in the two major cities, with home values falling by 8.9 per cent in Sydney and 7 per cent in Melbourne as the 'fear of missing out' that helped fuel years of historic price booms was replaced by the 'fear of not getting out'.

Sydney values are now 11.1 per cent lower than the market's peak in July 2017, while Melbourne values are down 7.2 per cent since peaking in November 2017.

New research from the Property Investment Professionals of Australia (PIPA) has found that 36 per cent of first-time buyers opted to invest in property and continue to rent instead of buying a home to live in over the past 12 months.

The finding was contained in the 2018 PIPA Investor Sentiment Survey, which also found more first-time buyers were purchasing existing properties than new builds.

PIPA chairman Peter Koulizos said 'rentvesting' as an investment strategy had likely been a trend for some time.

"What this insight shows us is that first-time property buyers generally have probably been more active over recent years than official statistics originally recorded," he said.

According to the latest ABS statistics, about 18 per cent of dwellings financed in Australia were to first-time buyers in September.

The banking regulator's move to lift its cap on interest-only loans is unlikely to see banks up their intake of the popular investment loan choice, according to AMP Capital's chief economist, Shane Oliver.

Mr Oliver dismissed suggestions of a resurgence in interest-only lending, following the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority's announcement that its 30 per cent cap on interest-only loan growth will be scrapped as of 1 January.

When asked if he believes the scrapping of the IO benchmark would trigger a rebound in banks' appetite for such loans, Mr Oliver said that with most lenders already "well below" the 30 per cent cap, the latest announcement would not serve as an opportunity for a resurgence in interest-only lending.

"Removing the cap doesn't mean interest-only lending is going to take off again, because banks are already well below the cap."

Housing affordability and property taxes will be big policy items for the 2019 federal budget, and there are some key policies property experts are pushing the government for.

Both sides of government have got property in the hot seat for 2019. The current Liberal government has heralded since 2017 that housing affordability is one of its headline priorities across Australian residential property markets. Further, the federal opposition has announced a range of policy proposals that would impact property investment significantly, such as negative gearing changes and incentivising property investors to offer new properties at rent below market rate.

Peter Koulizos, chairman of the Property Investment Professionals of Australia, and Adrian Kelly, president of the Real Estate Institute of Australia, have some things on their wish lists for 2019, which are being flagged with government as it starts to accept pre-budget submissions.

The Opposition is "shooting itself in the foot" with its new housing affordability policy, the chairman of a leading property investment body has said, as its set of housing reforms may work to lose money for a Labor-led government.

Peter Koulizos, chairman for Property Investment Professionals of Australia, says the opposition's proposed measure of targeting housing affordability through incentivising invetors may prove to hinder a Labor government by focusing on new properties.

"What they're trying to do here is incentivise investors to buy brand new property, which doesn't grow much in value," Mr Koulizos told Nest Egg.

"They're really shooting themselves in the foot.

"What will happen in the end is they will give out more negative gearing benefits [to investors involved in the scheme], because brand new property has more depreciation benefits."

Mr Shorten said that under the policy, if investors construct new properties and place them for rent at 20 per cent under market value, a subsidy of $8,500 a year for 15 years would be available for the investor.

While the policy was welcomed by many property experts, one thing was clear: there is still more that needs to be done.

Speaking to Smart Property Investment, Peter Koulizos, chairman of the Property Investment professionals of Australia, said that it was a good step in the right direction, but it was a policy that bore a similarity to the Rudd government's National Rental Affordability Scheme programme, which incentivised property investors to build new properties and offer rents at 20 per cent below market rent.